San Antonio honky tonk Cowboys Dancehall files for bankruptcy — again

The owners of Cowboys Dancehall are looking to sell the venue and the land it sits on for $12 million — two months after the partnership that owns the Northeast Side club filed for bankruptcy.

The owners of Cowboys Dancehall are looking to sell the venue and the land it sits on for $12 million — two months after the partnership that owns the Northeast Side club filed for bankruptcy.

Photo: Express-News File Photo

Photo: Express-News File Photo

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The owners of Cowboys Dancehall are looking to sell the venue and the land it sits on for $12 million — two months after the partnership that owns the Northeast Side club filed for bankruptcy.

The owners of Cowboys Dancehall are looking to sell the venue and the land it sits on for $12 million — two months after the partnership that owns the Northeast Side club filed for bankruptcy.

Photo: Express-News File Photo

San Antonio honky tonk Cowboys Dancehall files for bankruptcy — again

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The owners of Cowboys Dancehall, the North East Side honky tonk, have once again sought bankruptcy protection to avoid losing the club at a foreclosure sale.

Cowboys Far West, the Arlington-based partnership that owns the club, filed a bare-bones petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in federal court Monday after its lender put the venue up for sale at a foreclosure auction scheduled for Tuesday.

A lawyer and spokeswoman for Cowboys Dancehall did not immediately return requests for comment.

Cowboys currently holds between $10 million and $50 million in assets and between $1 million and $10 million in liabilities, according to the Monday filing in U.S. bankruptcy court. The Bexar Appraisal District assessed the partnership’s 11-acre property at 3030 NE Loop 410 at $4.8 million earlier this year.

The venue also owes more than $186,000 in taxes and late fees to Bexar County, according to the Bexar County Assessor-Collector’s website.

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Legendary guitar maker Gibson has filed for bankruptcy in the USA. Gibson Brands has a reported debt north of 400 million euros, with its other musical divisions like Epiphone or Wurlitzer also in the doldrums as sales of musical instuments decline.
Once near-ubiquitous in the hands of stars and guitar heroes from the Beatles to Jimi Hendrix to Neil Young and many, many more, the guitar is no longer the instrument of choice for the EDM generation, who are more likely to buy synthesisers or other electronic kit to make music.
Falling sales are not the whole story, though. Gibson Innovations based in the Netherlands, and formerly part of the giant Phillips group, which was bought four years ago, has underperformed and cost Gibson dear.
The news comes via Bloomberg, which offers details on the restructuring agreement: Gibson will undergo a "change of control," which will see CEO Henry Juszkiewicz, who has run the company since 1986, replaced and creditors being given equity in a new company. In exchange, the lenders will provide Gibson with a new $135 million loan so that they can continue operations. This is similar to the deal that was offered by their note-holders back in March.
Juszkiewicz has a colourful reputation as a businessman, a reportedly irascible and temperamental character, he was known for taking his sales execs to a gun range to shoot up Fenders, Gibson's main rival guitar brand. It was his decision to buy the Phillips division.
The company will also "unburden" itself of Gibson Innovations. The filing names the branch as the main source of the company's problems. Brian J. Fox, who will serve as the chief restructuring officer, said when Gibson Innovations lost credit insurance overseas, it became "trapped in a vicious cycle in which it lacked the liquidity to buy inventory and drive sales."
Previously, Juszkiewicz had blamed guitar stores for Gibson's problems, saying they were focusing on catering to professional musicians while ignorin

Media: Euronews

This isn’t Cowboys’ first rodeo. The partnership first filed for bankruptcy in 2016 when Business Property Lending, then its primary lender, initiated foreclosure proceedings in 2016 — after the club’s owners fell behind on taxes and failed to pay a state fine for liquor violations. At that time, Cowboys owed creditors about $10 million.

Cowboys secured a new lender — Oklahoma-based limited partnership Crossroads 2004 — to take over its $4.2 million mortgage loan from Business Property Lending, a subsidiary of Florida-based EverBank Financial Corp.

A call to a number listed for Crossroads 2004 wasn’t immediately returned.

Under the plan, Cowboys President Michael Murphy was allowed to remain in his position. The company was to continue to servicing its primary loan to Crossroads 2004 along with a $2.1 million mortgage made through a Houston community development corporation that is now held by Minnesota-based Prinsbank.

Cowboys also was supposed to pay Bexar County almost $154,000 in back taxes plus 12 percent interest over a 48-month period.